MILAN, (Reuters) – Italy’s former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi paid for sex during at least one party at his luxury villa outside Milan, a witness said today at a trial where he is accused of paying for sex with an underage prostitute.
Natascia Teatino told the court that a friend named Aris she had accompanied to one of the evenings had said she “received money for (sexual) relations with Berlusconi,” adding that she had not specified how much money.
“Aris told me that I could stay and have sex with Berlusconi, but I didn’t feel like staying,” Teatino said.
Berlusconi, 75, is charged with paying for sex with Moroccan-born Karima El Mahroug in 2010, when she was 17, and then abusing the powers of his office by getting her freed from police custody after she had been arrested for theft.
Prosecutors say that dozens of show girls and aspiring starlets received cash and other gifts for taking part in sex games at his Milan home. Other witnesses have also told the court of gifts of cash and jewellery for sex.
Teatino’s friend Aris is on the list of witnesses to be called.
Berlusconi, who denies the charges, says he was only helping the young women out of generosity and accuses magistrates of a politically biased campaign against him. He says his parties were “elegant, convivial dinners”.
Teatino told the court that at the end of the evening, several girls received envelopes containing money, but she remained empty-handed.
“I wasn’t paid because, as my friend Aris explained, I asked too many questions,” she said.
She also described how the evening began with a pre-dinner drink, and then she said Berlusconi handed out jewellery to the group of about 20 girls before they sat down to dinner.
“After dinner Berlusconi said “Let’s go to the bunga-bunga” and he took us to the disco room,” she said, adding that there she saw him and his associate touching the breasts and bottoms of girls wearing swimsuits or low-cut dresses.
